25
Aug
Do I Have To Worry About My Job When I Am Out Because Of an Injury Or Illness
People often have the mistaken belief that there job is protected when they are out of work because of a medical condition so long as they have a doctor’s note stating they are unable to work. Unfortunately, that is not the case all the time. There are certain laws that do protect your job while you are out of work because of a medical condition but both you and your employer must qualify before your job is protected. The FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT is one of the laws that protects your job while you are out. To qualify under this law you must be employed with your company for more than a year and have worked more than 1250 hours in the year before the job protection kicks in. You must also be working for a company with more than 50 employees. If you do not meet this criteria than you have no job protection should you become ill and unable to work. Sounds harsh and unfair? Well it is! Do not be led into some false sense of job security until you check whether you are entitled to what is called FMLA leave. If you do qualify for FMLA you have job protection for 12 weeks in a calender year. That means you can take up to 12 weeks off in a calender year and your job is protected. You must be placed in your exact job or a similar job. You also cannot be retaliated against because you exercised your FMLA rights. That is illegal! Another similar law is the FAMILY LEAVE ACT. This law has similar criteria as far as the one year of employment but you have to log 1500 hours in the calender year to qualify. Your employer must also have 50 employees. Here though you you can only take 12 weeks off every 2 years and have job protection. Once again retaliation is illegal! The difference between the FMLA and the FLA is that the FLA is that the FLA does not cover your own health condition. The FLA protects your job when you have to take time off to care for a family member who has a serious health condition. Like mom or dad or a child needs you to be with them because of a medical condition. Both of these laws place the burden on the employee of notifying the employer about the leave. However there are certain things that the employer must do to notify you that your FMLA and or FLA leave is being clocked. These laws are complicated and interact with each other. They also interact with workers comp, pregnancy leave, adoption leave and new born child bonding time. The best way to protect yourself is to call me so i can advise you of your rights. However if you have already fired or had some type of adverse job action taken against you, you may have a case. Call me at 1-800-34-NJ-law and i will be glad to discuss your rights.